While Eric was enjoying his time off in East Hampton, many people weren't as relaxed as he was.

September 17, the last day of New York Fashion Week.

In Bryant Park, Manhattan, Linda Ivan Golinsta hurriedly said goodbye to the organizers after her last show of this fashion week, and before she could even remove the smoky makeup on her face, she got into her car and urged her assistant to rush to the ABC headquarters on the Upper West Side.

"America's Top Model" and "The Flyover" are set to air in the next two weeks, and AE Network President Anne Sweeney today asked her to join Cindy Crawford to discuss the final phase of the campaign.

Although the reform plan of the AE television network, even if it does fail, it will not have much impact on the Firefly Group, which has an annual revenue of $20 billion. But for Anne Sweeney, who was parachuted into the AE network, and the AE network staff group, as well as the two reality show production teams led by Cindy and Linda, whether the two TV shows "America's Top Model" and "The Flyover" can succeed and the AE TV network can flourish is directly related to their future careers, so everyone has worked very hard during this time.

More than ten minutes later, I came to the office of Anne Sweeney, who was in charge of the AE television network, where Cindy Crawford was already sitting, and Anne Sweeney was chatting with Cindy in a low voice, and when she saw her come in, she quickly got up.

"Good afternoon, Anne, I'm sorry I'm late. ”

"It's okay, you're not late," Anne Sweeney said as she hugged Linda.

Anne Sweeney is fierce at work, but in many cases even ruthless. But he is very enthusiastic about being a person. Plus there is not much difference in age. During this time, several women have become good friends.

After greeting each other, Anne Sweeney picked up a few papers and led the two girls to the small conference room next to them.

Sitting around a small conference table, Anne Sweeney said: "Now that the basic situation has been decided, although the group headquarters is trying to fight as hard as possible, the number of subscribers to the new season of Lifetime TV is still only 34.5 million, compared to last year. It only added 3 million, which is the sum of the audience base we have. ”

Cindy frowned slightly, this number is only equivalent to one-eighth of the current total population of the United States, remembered some things that Eric accidentally mentioned before, and asked: "Annie, why is it only so small, aren't those operators interested in Lifetime's reform plan?"

"Of course not, it's complicated, like Time Warner, not only did they not increase the number of users of Lifetime. This quarter also cut the number of subscribers to Lifetime by 800,000, which is a factor in the game of interests. Since the media was further liberalized, operators can have their own cable TV stations, and the market is so big that not every operator wants to see the rise of competing TV stations. Anne Sweeney shook her head and explained, adding: "However, the main factor is that Lifetime's past ratings performance has been too dismal and has not brought much benefit to the operator. That's why they're lukewarm about Lifetime's reforms. Therefore, everything depends on the ratings performance of the next two TV series. ”

After listening to Anne Sweeney's explanation, Linda looked at Cindy, and couldn't help but ask a question that everyone had been reluctant to face: "Annie, what do you think...... How much can we get for our show?"

Anne Sweeney pressed the document in her hand, looked at the two women, hesitated, and said, "Actually, this is what I want to ask you, both of these projects were conceived by Mr. Williams, haven't you talked to him about it?"

Linda shook her head and said, "We asked, but he didn't say." ”

Anne Sweeney nodded regretfully, flipped through the documents next to her, took out a copy and handed it to the two women next to her, and said, "For these two programs, the company and the advertiser signed a floating contract. According to the contract plan, the passing line for the viewership of the two programs is 1.5 million, and the rating reaches 0.8. Under this data, the average advertising cost for 30 seconds is $50,000, each episode is 16 minutes of advertising time, the revenue is $1.6 million, and the total revenue of 13 episodes is just 20 million of the production cost, and then, through the operator's share and subsequent program distribution, we can break even. ”

Linda and Cindy looked at the documents in front of them, and after a while, Cindy looked up and said, "So, Annie, what were the ratings of Lifetime TV last year?"

Anne Sweeney hesitated and said: "In 1994, the highest number of viewers was a TV movie "The Seventh Floor", starring Brooke Smalls, with 2.21 million viewers, and the average primetime rating for the whole of last year was 700,000. ”

"It's not even a million," Linda almost jumped up in disappointment.

Anne Sweeney nodded, she didn't tell the two girls that this was only the average primetime rating, and if it was spread out throughout the day, the ratings would be even more dismal. As a result, Lifetime TV's advertising revenue for the whole of last year was only more than $30 million, which is not as high as the operator's share.

As you can imagine, it is not easy to increase the viewership to 1.5 million, more than doubling it all at once, with the subscriber base remaining the same.

Noticing that both girls' faces were a little lost, Anne Sweeney encouraged, although she was equally apprehensive: "I don't think we need to worry too much. During the ABC period, the company has not paid attention to Lifetime TV, and without excellent programs, the ratings certainly cannot go up. It's different now, just the production cost of the two shows in your hands is more than the total investment of Lifetime TV in the past five years, not to mention, in terms of publicity, there is the full support of the group headquarters and Hearst, I am still very confident in the ratings. ”

Linda's heart was bigger, listening to Anne Sweeney's relief. He nodded quickly. said: "Anyway, he made up this show." If it is smashed, it is a big deal that I will go back and continue to be a model, and I will not starve to death. ”

Hearing Linda's big grunt, Cindy really wanted to reach out and pinch her, and with the black lines on her head, she turned to Anne Sweeney and said, "Annie, you call us here." Aren't you going to talk about propaganda?"

Anne Sweeney also ignored Linda's words just now, and smiled: "That's the case, I've communicated with the ABC, Cindy, you get ready, tomorrow to record "The Late Show with David", Linda, your schedule is scheduled for next Wednesday." ”

In order to stagger the fermentation time of the topic of the two reality shows, "American Supermodel Competition" is scheduled to be broadcast next Tuesday, September 19. "The Pride of the Flyover" was ranked a week later. On September 28, the schedule is Thursday.

After properly disposing of ABC's late-night news program "Nightline". ABC poached David Letterman from CBS and took over the ace talk show.

During this time, Firefly and Hirst have used their respective channels to warm up and promote "America's Top Model Contest" and "Flyover" as much as possible, and a lot of corresponding news has appeared on the Yahoo portal. But because the two programs have not proven their ratings potential, and it is impossible to invest unrestricted in all aspects, this support is limited after all. Therefore, before the show starts, landing on the ace talk show for promotion can be said to be the most effective move, and of course, the last move.

Both women have experience in participating in talk shows, especially last year, because of the popularity of the Victoria's Secret show, they received a lot of program invitations during that time, so they are no strangers to this aspect. After a brief discussion of some details, Anne Sweeney and her two daughters rushed to ABC's production department to consult with David Letterman's team.

In the midst of the intense busyness, the two days almost flashed by.

On September 19, the fruits of several months of labor will also be verified today.

For countless ordinary people, Tuesday is still an ordinary day.

Most of the students are nearing the end of the summer vacation, enjoying the last vacation time, and the young people who have entered the society have completed another day's work, because it is a working day, there are few people who go out for recreation, and they have eaten dinner, or they are alone, or they are hugging their lovers, or holding their children, and they sit in front of the TV as usual.

They didn't know the ABC headquarters in Manhattan, and many people were anxiously waiting for the results of the new day's ratings, but they just happened to think of the promotion of "America's Top Model Contest" that they had seen inadvertently in newspapers, magazines or TV shows recently, so they picked up the remote control, remembered that they just had Lifetime in their cable TV package, and they went over to the end. And those who have not been connected to Lifetime TV, if they like fashion more, although they regret it slightly, they don't mind too much, after all, they always have no shortage of TV shows to watch.

As with any TV show, you can only succeed if you can target the audience's taste and capture the audience's emotions.

In order to achieve this, Eric put a lot of thought into it.

For a model talent show, what do young women who like fashion and have some fantasies about the runway want to see the most, there is no doubt that of course it is an ordinary ordinary girl who suddenly appeared in front of everyone with brilliance, if there is one word to describe it, that is, sparrows become phoenixes.

Eric's carefully arranged script title for the first episode of "America's Top Model Contest" is "Sparrow Becomes Phoenix".

When the time came to eight o'clock, after the last commercial, the Lifetime TV screen flashed and lit up again, and the opening title of "America's Top Model Competition" appeared.

A series of beautiful art photographs flashed by, and Cindy Crawford's voice was heard at the same time.

"People always ask me, Cindy, how do I become a supermodel, and every time, I patiently guide them, you should do this, you should do that. Until one day, I suddenly thought, maybe I can tell all this to all the girls who have the dream of becoming a supermodel through the TV, then, today, welcome to "America's Top Model Contest". ”

"After the selection, we selected thirteen girls from all over the United States, some of them are from the western town, some are from the city of angels, some are bold southern girls, and some are gentle northern girls, starting today, I will use the next two months, through a variety of standard training, from among them to select the next rising star in the modeling industry, and the final champion girl will receive a model contract from an elite modeling agency. Covergirl's $100,000 endorsement deal and, in the future, more opportunities. ”

"So, let's get started now. ”

As Cindy, dressed in a professional woman's fashion, flashed out of the picture, auditions of girls from all over the United States appeared on the television.

In an apartment in Midtown Manhattan, time flies, and Alice and Charlotte, two girls who had a chance encounter with Eric, have separated, and Alice has moved in with her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend is a Morgan Stanley financial analyst named Scott, who was forced by his girlfriend to watch a fashion reality show that she was not very interested in. Just now, Cindy's picture was quite eye-catching, hugging his girlfriend for a little YY, but when the picture flashed out, and ordinary people appeared in front of him, Scott couldn't help laughing: "Haha, Alice, do you think these ugly ducklings can become supermodels, it's just a joke, if they can also become supermodels, then you can be a world supermodel." ”

Alice looked at the ordinary girls on the TV, and was also a little disappointed, she still liked Cindy Crawford, and at the same time, she also vaguely heard that this show had something to do with Eric, so she paid special attention to it today, so when Cindy announced that she wanted to make these ordinary girls supermodels, she also expressed her disappointment.

Although most of these girls on the TV have very good figures and their faces are not ugly, they definitely do not have a trace of the radiant supermodel temperament similar to Cindy in every way.

Seeing that her boyfriend picked up the remote control and was about to change the channel, Alice thought about it for a while, but still pressed his hand: "Scott, wait a little longer." ”

Scott was quite considerate, and when he saw his girlfriend's insistence, he followed her wishes, but he still didn't forget to add: "Okay, just take it as a joke." ”

In front of the thousands of TVs that chose "America's Top Model Contest", most of them had the same thoughts as Alice's couple, and some of them even changed the channel in disappointment.

On the TV screen, the show continued.

The lucky girls began to gather in New York, the fashion capital, with different personalities, different backgrounds, and different life experiences, through clever camera display, gradually making the audience temporarily forget these ordinary ugly ducklings, or find their own shadows, or be controlled by curiosity and voyeurism in their hearts, and slowly, many people began to devote themselves to the plot with interest. (To be continued.) )